The Spider and the Stone: A Novel of Scotland's Black Douglas

As the 14th century dawns Scotlands survival hangs by a spiders thread. While the Scot clans scrap over their empty throne the brutal Edward Longshanks of England invades the weakened northern kingdom scheming to annex it to his realm.But one frail dark-skinned lad stands in the Plantagenet monarchs path. The beleaguered Scots cherish and lionize James Douglas as their Good Sir James. Yet in England his slashing and elusive raids deep into Yorkshire and Northumbria wreak such havoc and terror that he is branded the Black Douglas with a reward placed on his head for his capture.As a boy James falls in love with the ravishing Isabelle MacDuff whose clan for centuries has inaugurated Scottish monarchs on the hallowed Stone of Destiny. His world is upturned when he befriends Robert Bruce a bitter enemy of the MacDuffs. Forced to choose between love and clan loyalty James and Isabelle make fateful decisions that will draw the opposing armies to the bloody field of Bannockburn.Isabelle will crown a king. James will carry a kings heart. At last both now take their rightful places with Robert Bruce Rob Roy and William Wallace in the pantheon of Scot heroes.Here is the story of Scotlands War of Independence and the remarkable events that followed the execution of Wallace whose legend was portrayed in the movie Braveheart. This thrilling epic leads us to the miraculous Stone of Destiny to the famous Spider in the Cave to the excommunicated Knights Templar to the suppressed Culdee Church and to the unprecedented Declaration of Arbroath the stirring oath document that inspired the American Declaration of Independence four hundred years later.The Spider and the Stone is the unforgettable saga of the star-crossed love religious intrigue and heroic sacrifice that saved Scotland during its time of greatest peril.